Weight

[Kegan]

Well, I know I have seen this thread before, but I can't remember it co I'm gonna ask any way. Since a bow loses about 10# in breaking in, how do you make up for this, or deal with it. I try to go by Paul Comstocks method of breaking the bow in as soon as the tiller is good and then chasing weight (or leeaving it there usually). What do you do to account fot the weight ?

[duffontap]

Kegan,

A hunting weight bow of, say, 60#s shouldn't loose more than a pound or two in shooting in.  Bows need to be exercised regularly through the tillering process and after sanding before they are given a final weight.  If a bow loses 10#s, something has happened like a serious hinge or major moisture gain.  Hope that's helpful.
 
           J. D. Duff

[Justin Snyder]

What JD said.   Justin

[tom sawyer]

Mine often lose up to 5lb.  Might be I'm not exercising them enough.  My own philosophy on that is, why bend something that is less than perfectly bending?  Theres a lkine you have to walk, you want the corrections to register but if there's still imperfections you don't want to overly stress the weak areas.  I walk on the conservative side, and when I shoot in I make final minor adjustments and see a larger drop in poundage.

I compensate by quitting about 5lb above where I want it to be.  YOu can always remove a little wood, harder to replace it.  But I've done that too.

[Badger]

Kegan, if you built the perfect bow and had the moisture managed just right it is possible to build a bow that has no weight loss even durring the building process, but not likely or always feasable. Use enough wood in the bending areas and use enough bending area in each limb and you can keep the loss to a minimum maybe 1# or 2#. This is something I think we all struggle with and try to get better at. Steve

[Kegan]

Thanks everyone. I had been under the impression that the weight loss was supposed to happen. But, as J.D. had said, I might not be excersising them enough DURING tillering. This could explain it, and also why bows that are more "trouble" to tiller seem to hold their weight better because they are being excersised more during this point.

Thanks eevryone- you cleared up a big problem I've been wondering about! I should simply spend longer on the tillering and excersising the bow while building .

[Hillbilly]

While I'm tillering, once I get the bow to bending evenly, every time I take off any wood I pull it 30-35 times to whatever draw length I've got it tillered out to at the moment. I don't usually notice any significant drop in weight after shooting in. As Lennie said, don't pull it too much until it's bending evenly, though, or you can end up with a nasty hinge or a lot of set.

[Kegan]

That is defiantely it then- I don't really work it in during the process, but after. That would explain the drop in weight while shooting it in. Just slow it down more and it won;t lose the weight !

[Pat B]

You are still loosing weight as you remove wood and exercise but it is over an extended period and not all at once. All at once is when you over stress the wood, loose too much weight and get more set. Without exercising the bow, the wood removal doesn't always register and then all of a sudden you have a hinge, too much set or too little weight. When you pull your bow 20 or 30 times after each wood removal session(no farther than you have tillered to) you are allowing the wood to slowly get used to the bend it will take and also be able to recover back to its normal shape with only a little set.
   Boy, I think I just confused myself!     Pat

[Kegan]

What I usually did was, after removing a little wood, put it on the tillerig stick and leave it there as i look it over, and then when the tiler is on I would leave it at full draw for 30-60 minutes. After a few weeks or so there would be at least a drop of five pounds. This kept bugging me becausse I would notice the arrows drop a little more than they had before.

I was just always in a bit of "hurry" and neevr spent as much time as I should have during tillering . Now I know .